It was the year when Britain hosted the Olympics yet football remained more popular, and when the public bade farewell to one of the world’s most famous singers but fell in love with a chubby Korean pop star.

Google releases its annual lists of the most searched words and terms today, giving a snapshot of the stories and trends that have captured the nation’s imagination.

The “zeitgeist” lists show the most popular keywords from billions of Google queries made by British users in the past 12 months. Rankings are in categories including “most searched” and “trending people”.